Organisers of the open auditions in Lower Hutt near Wellington, New Zealand, had been expecting 1,200 people at most but were overwhelmed by numbers and police were eventually called, causing the event to be shut down early after only 800 were seen. Senior sergeant Steve Braybrook told NZ Newswire: "There was enough concern that the police attend." He said production company 3foot7 had made the decision to close down the auditions when it became clear that queuing and parking near the event was beginning to spill over on to a nearby highway, causing concern for the safety of the gathering crowd.

"There's a lot of parking there and there's actually quite a lot of room, but as the day went on basically the line got so long," organiser Chris Ryan told the New Zealand Herald. "It was just starting to cause a few problems on the motorway, people slowing down and looking at the crowds, really, I think more than anything else."

The Hobbit casting call described a search for men under 164cm and women under 155cm, big men with "character faces" over 175cm, men with large biceps, women with "character faces" and women with long hair to appear in the movies. Organisers will now continue their hunt online.

Meanwhile, Jackson's take on JRR Tolkien's fantasy stories moved one step closer to immortality yesterday following publication of publicity shots for a new range of Lord of the Rings Lego, including a particularly startling Gollum model. The toys are due to arrive in stores from June and will also include Frodo, Aragorn and Gandalf the Grey. A Hobbit line is set to launch closer to the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in December. The second part, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, will be released in December 2013.